Ancient Web: Stephen Lower Made an Antidote to Miracle-Water Marketing

Part of the Ancient Web Collection.

Water is already an extraordinary substance. That has never stopped advertisers from promising to make it even more extraordinary by running it past magnets, spinning it into a vortex, or selling it under a scientific-sounding name.

Visit Stephen Lower's AquaQuackery pages.

Lower, a retired chemistry faculty member at Simon Fraser University, built a set of long-form explanations addressing consumer products whose advertised benefits rely on dubious interpretations of chemistry. The index covers ionized and alkaline waters, oxygenated drinks, 'structured' or clustered water, magnetic softeners, detoxifying footbaths, coral calcium, and supposed fuel-saving water treatments.

The writing is deliberately blunt. But it does not rely only on jokes. The site links discussions of water's structure and actual water hardness alongside the sensational claims, inviting readers to compare a product's sales pitch with ordinary physical chemistry.

An old-school skeptical reference shelf

The Wonky Water Bunk section collects claims about water that has allegedly been energized by light, vibration, or unusual mineral configurations. Lower discusses why terms familiar from real scientific research can be misused when marketers imply physiological benefits without adequate controlled evidence.

Other sections address magnetic treatment and the actual distinction between hard-water deposits and contaminants. Links to EPA standards, consumer information, and a 2001 Chemical & Engineering News feature help connect the author's commentary to external material.

The project openly states a motive: Lower resents having chemistry used to mislead consumers. His biography at the bottom identifies his academic background, while the pages' style belongs to the era of independent educational sites built as topic directories rather than feeds. The index bears a last-modified date of March 2, 2017; it does not establish the original launch year.

This is not medical advice, nor is an older skeptical essay a substitute for checking current regulatory guidance and research. An individual product's claims should be assessed on the evidence available for that product, not merely by resemblance to another scam.

The archive's historical value is in the effort of documenting science-based criticism of Internet marketing at considerable length, before short viral debunking clips became the default format.

Explore the original AquaQuackery index and its structured-water essays.

Part of the Ancient Web Collection.